Overcoming difficulties of life

Life can at times appear beset with difficulties, how best to overcome them?

1. Do not Blame Others.

Man's instinct is often to blame our problems on others. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed somebody else; but by blaming others we do not help, even an iota, in solving our own problems. Often when we blame others we actually seek to avoid the problem, and pass it on to somebody else. Even if others are partly to blame, we need to look at what we can do to help the situation.

2. Accept difficulties as a challenge.

Part of the problem is that often we feel that difficulties are a burden we need to avoid at all cost. If we accept difficulties, as challenges that we can learn from, then they lose a significant power. When we cheerfully face up to our problems, we develop the right attitude to be able to deal with them.

3. Meditation.

Meditation can definitely help us to deal with outer problems and difficulties. Meditation is the art of silencing the mind. With a silent mind we are able to have clarity of thought and purpose; this is essential for being able to solve our difficulties. Also, the mind often exaggerates the extent and seriousness of our problems; in fact quite often our difficulties can be just imagined worries and anxieties. Through meditation we are able to dive deep within and bring to the fore our inner peace. This inner peace is of great help in keeping our difficulties in perspective.

4. Prayer.

When we pray we invoke the grace of a higher prayer. In prayer we seek to have our difficulties removed, acknowledging that we alone cannot solve our own problems. The most effective prayer is when we don't demand a certain outcome. Jesus Christ uttered the highest prayer when he said: "Let Thy Will be done". Quite often our prayers may get answered in a way we do not expect. To pray to have no difficulties is to seek to avoid life; to pray for protection from unnecessary difficulties is a different matter.

5. Deal with one Problem at a time.

It sometimes occurs that difficulties arrive all at once; faced with a range of problems it feels hopeless to solve any at all. If we take one problem at a time, we can actually make progress in dealing with our seemingly, insurmountable problems.

6. Seek guidance from Others.

There is nothing to say we need to solve problems on our own; we should not be too proud to seek help from others. Sometimes, speaking to a friend may help us to work out for ourselves what we need to do. There is an old saying "A problem shared, is a problem halved" there is a lot of truth in this. Although, ultimately we have to face our own difficulties, there is no reason we have to do it without help from others.

7. Ignore Problems.

Simply ignoring them can solve some problems. When we ignore our fears and worries quite often they leave us. These difficulties are the imaginary difficulties without any real substance. It is only real difficulties we need to try and overcome.

“Trials and tribulations are within us and without us. We simply have to ignore them. If this act of ignoring is not effective, we must face them.”